The Bound Bride (13 page)

She saw him nodding, almost following along.

“This
is different, Cassie.”

And she was losing him.

“Okay. Sure. This is like paradise. We can do whatever we want to and always
come back.”

He approached her slowly and took her hand.

“Can
we?”

Cassandra’s argument was unraveling within her mind.

“I… I’ll
come back. I’ll
go
with you. Oliver.”

She tried to hold him, but he backed away.

“No guarantees when it comes to that, Cassie.”

She saw the fear in his eyes and longed to touch him. But he was already refilling his drink.

“No… what about the contract.”

Point Cassie.

Oliver looked at her with what she would simply take for love if she didn’t see the fear bubbling beneath the surface.

And the potential rage.

“The contract? Cassie.”

He laughed as he finished his drink. Cassandra obviously wasn’t getting the joke.

“I… yes. I mean, it says I’m yours. At least for the month. Isn’t that a guarantee?”

He set his glass down with a smile.

“In some ways.”

He touched her face, and she was on the verge of melting. Her eyes closed against the feel of his hands.

“But you obviously didn’t read the fine print.”

She opened her eyes.

“And it’s all in the details, Angel.”

He kissed the top of her head and smoothed his hand down her back.

“Give it another look. And then we’ll see if this conversation is even relevant.”

He moved away. When he was out of the room, she was able to move again, and there was only one place she wanted to go.

Chapter Nineteen

      She flew up the stairs and reached for her laptop. It was one of the few things in the house that actually
belonged
to her. Cassandra steadied the computer on her knees, and her fingers hurried towards the LeaseALady home page.

Cassandra took a deep breath and logged on.

Her profile awash in stars. She read Oliver’s compliments from their first, fateful date.

Charming and lovely. Would DEFINTELY see again.

And he did. He had secured her services again to make his offer.

More stars.

Sweet in EVERY way. I look forward to a LONG TERM arrangement with Trixie.

Cassandra could kill Iris for what now sounded like a
r
idiculous and dangerous username.

She clicked the tab that opened a new browser of her ongoing jobs.

Domestic cohabitation
.

It had seemed so harmless when Cassandra signed on the digital, dotted line. Oliver had laid everything out in such clear terms, and Cassandra was
so
eager to see him again, under any terms, that she hadn’t read the fine
print.

She did now.

The lady in question will agree to remain in the domicile for a period of one month. ANY
protests with regard to that particular point automatically extend the contract. An additional month is automatically added without question.

Oh God.

She’d left the house when the new clothing arrived. She’s protested again just last night in the pool.

It was already a three month sentence.

Cassandra trembled and pushed the computer from her lap. She hadn’t been as bright as he’d smugly given her credit for. He had seduced her away from the one room that was hers and shown her a mansion to get lost in. But despite the opulent furnishings and immense space, it was a place from which it now seemed impossible to leave.

It was a prison.

Cassandra fell to the computer and continued scanning the contract.

“Where’s the out?” she pleaded to no one. “There has to be…”

There was something
else.

Any
attempt to discontinue this contract before all time accrued is honored EXACTLY
will
result in the lady in question responsible for a refund of all monies already paid for previous services rendered.

How… there was no way. She’d spent the first three thousand dollars in an effort to dial down the debt that was swallowing her whole. And once she’d stepped across the threshold of the prison palace that Oliver had so carefully constructed, all of her obligations were wiped clean.

There was only one way that she could pay him back.

She had to stay.

Cassandra sank back into the many pillows. She felt the fool her parents had always told her that she was. Oliver had dangled a carrot, and she bit down hard at what tasted like salvation. But she had only stepped into another trap from which there was no foreseeable escape.

She held her knees close to her chin and cried at the plush nightmare that was to be more days than she could bear to count. She spied her phone on the end table and considered calling her parents or better yet Iris for any kind of aid. Iris at least would hurry to the house beyond the city streets and show Oliver a thing or twenty. She’d have Cassandra on the next train back to her studio, the rent momentarily paid in full. But what was the use? Oliver had her signature on the contract, and there was no
way that Iris could rid her of the incurred debt on the tips of a waitress.

Cassandra was lost.

The bedroom door eased open, and she shot up and saw Oliver though her tears. His smile seemed tender, but Cassandra instantly regretted every place and way that he had touched
her. She reached for the blanket and concealed everything but the base of her quivering face from his view.

“So you’ve read it,” he stated, plainly.

Cassandra wiped her eyes.

“I did. Why… why are you doing this to me?”

Something in her words seemed to sting him, and he started towards her.

“No don’t. I don’t want you to touch me.”

Oliver flinched under the force of his words, and she didn’t care if he was hurt. Let him know just
what it
was to be trapped.

“Cassie,—”

“And don’t
call me that!”

Oliver swung a chair around and sat with his hands folded across the front.

“Fine. Is Trixie more your speed?”

Cassandra had thought that she was special in his arms. Was she just one
in a long line of indulged games? He had the money and the power to subject anyone to his suspect desires. Yet somehow she felt that she was the first to receive this
particular treatment.

She summoned the strength to leave the bed and neared him to the point that she could bear.

“It’s
Cassandra
,” she said. Oliver smoothed his hands across his head.

“Okay.
Cassandra
. Let’s talk it out.”

She sat on the edge of the mattress and clutched the bedpost tightly out of fear that she would fall or lunge towards him before she knew what was happening.

“Talk it… okay. Sure. Let’s. Why did you bring me here?”

His eyes went warm.

“I don’t know. To give you everything you could ever want
?”

Like he really knew her.

“You think I want this?”

“Who wouldn’t?”

“
I don’t
.”

She was on her feet and reaching for his neck. Oliver stood and kicked the chair away. Cassandra’s breath quickened as the chair shattered against the wall.

“Could have fooled me? You seemed happy last night.”

She had
been. She was awakened to wet, suspended ecstasy that promised more of the same night after night.

But it was a lie. Cassandra was little more than a toy. A slave.

“You weren’t straight with me,” she said.

Oliver sighed.

“Fine. Apologies. So you’re only now understanding the terms. Is it so bad with me?”

In some ways it wasn’t. He could be generous and skillful in
every way
imaginable when the flesh was willing. But Cassandra wasn’t. Not when it was all built on a trap.

“It wasn’t,” she started. “But I know you better now.”

“Cassie—”

“I said don’t—”

“
Angel
then! Give me that much!”

She wasn’t about to give him anything.

“So what was the plan? Keep me confined until I couldn’t deny you anything? I’m arguing the terms now, Oliver. How many more
months have I added to my sentence?”

Cassandra prayed for him to see reason and end
this as he was but a breath away.

“I’d say nearly a year. And I’m holding you to it.
Cassie
.”

She shook her head and saw no end to his plan. Especially now. Any cross look or cold world could and would be interpreted as a protest, and she imagined years with only these walls for friends. There would be no other
contact save for Faye and Jeff. The former had to know what Oliver was aiming for. Was a visit from Iris even a possibility? Even it if was, Iris would always be able to leave.

Damn you, Iris
.

Cassandra fell to her knees and sobbed at unspeakable hopelessness of the hand dealt. A part of her had always known that it was too good to be true. Now it was even worse.

“Cassie.”

He was with her on the floor, and he wrapped his arms around her. For a second, Cassandra could do nothing but sink into his arms. But she didn’t return his embrace. Oliver stroked her and lowered his lips to her ear.

“Please. Please don’t. It’s not to make you sad. It’s… it’s to keep you safe.”

She stopped crying and pushed him away.

“Safe?
Safe
?”

He was using her own
words against her in the most awful way.

“This is
safe
? Okay. Let’s go
with that. Come on.”

Cassandra reached for his wrists and pulled him to the bed. He was on top of her, trying to pull away.

“Cassie—”

“This is safe. For you.”

She moved his hand under her robe and pressed it to her quivering clit.

“Cassie, I—”

“You want me in these rooms. And I have no
way out. So do it
,
Oliver. Do it again and again. I’ll struggle this time. That won’t
be a lie.”

She saw his eyes mist over, but she couldn’t stop.

“But you are. And you’re bulletproof. So just rape
me, Oliver. That’s what this is. Rape me like you always
have. Rape me until I can’t remember anything else.”

She waited for him to unzip his fly and plunge within. She waited to surrender to all of his trappings.

Oliver slid away from her and simply looked down. Her chest heaved as he looked from her to the room and back again with a shock that saddened her to a point where she almost wanted to lift herself up against her arms and call a truce. But she couldn’t. Sad as he seemed, she still didn’t trust hm.

He pulled the chair back and sat with his head in his hands.

“I… I would
never
…”

All of her rage returned.

“Then why keep me—?”

“Enough!”

Cassandra nearly fell back to the pillows as he cracked his knuckles then ran his nails against the back of his neck. She could see him trapped in the space of thoughts that seemed too
terrible to speak. She could be generous and ask him why.

But she was a still his slave. And she wasn’t about to let him forget that.

“I thought you liked me,” she said.

His face softened. He tried to touch her face.

“I
do
.”

She swatted his hand away.

“No. You just want to do things to me. And now I know I can’t
run away.”

Cassandra swallowed and lowered her body back to the bed. He left the chair and hovered over her. She closed her eyes and waited for him to take her again. Any memories of how
good
he felt would be eradicated by the reality of her true role in his house.

Master bedroom.
And he
was the master
.